Reducing Stress by Causing Stress?

Today’s home practice was brought to me by the emotion of stress. 

Actually, all of this started earlier when I came home from work and just felt like crawling under the covers and staying there for the rest of life. Well maybe just for the rest of the day. Alas, I wanted to fight this feeling back with compassion, love, and serenity instead, I had a craving for an honest to goodness yoga nidra session. Now for those of you who like me are either noobs or have been away for awhile meditation can be very difficult. There are so many things going on at once. For one you have the focus on breath (pranayama), for two you have to focus on emptiness when you have all of the buzzing from the day running around in your head, and for three you have your own body bothering you to get up and keep tense. 

I find my friends at Fragrant Heart Meditation to be very helpful to those newly learning to meditate or for oldies who are working it back into their daily routine. Meditation is a part of yogic life. It’s wonderful to be able to connect with yourself and disconnect from all of the noise (not literal) that occurs from day to day. 

Half an hour later re-awakening with a new light and a fresh soul after drifting away from all of that stress I was ready for a light meal an the evening ahead. I enjoyed some mushroom couscous with a cup of edamame for my dinner and headed out to one of my new and favourite activities HULA HOOPING. I practiced an hour of hoopFIT with Cyndi Butt from Wild Lily Dance Centre at Harbour Side Park in Downtown St. John’s. What a beautiful night with a bunch of wonderful ladies, rocking music, and the gorgeous view of the narrows. 

Upon return from my class I was still warm and ready to go. I was by no means ready to settle down for the evening. What could I possibly do to calm my system? YOGA! A few years ago I was a starving student and spent a few of my valuable dollars on some Yoga Zone DVD’s so that I could save some money by practicing at home. In that set was an Evening Stress Release Yoga Series. Now there are two 20-minute practices on the DVD and I was feeling uber chipper and decided that it would be best to do both of them. There were two key differences between the two practices.

The first session was about causing stress through strengthening poses to allow the tension release in your body. That’s not pushing yourself to the point of discomfort but rather breathing into a stressful posture to open yourself and relax into each pose. This practice opened me up to an idea about stress itself. That is, stress builds and builds unless we stop pushing ourselves against it. If we stop and let it stretch out a little the stress doesn’t seem nearly as monstrous as we first thought. Step back, take a second, and breathe. 

The second practice was more about grounding out through your breath and focused on opening the chest through backbends and twists. Wringing the body out from the inside to the surface. This practice was slower and more cooling to the typical Pitta furnace that I am. (Note: Pitta is a dosha) I settled more in this series and it allowed me to wind down even more than the first. Savansana became very relaxed and open.